Shipping Cost Estimator Accuracy

OK, I know it claims only to estimate and not quote, but I'm just wondering why I cannot get the results to match up with UPS published 2010 rates. http://www.ups.com/rates/

I haven't shipped anything yet but if possible I'm trying to make sure I have no confusion on shipping costs for me or my customers from day one.

I am accounting for residential / commercial delivery and retail vs daily rates but no match. Shipping weight is correct. Another thread mentioned that entering 'company name' would trigger non-residential status but I do not see that happening in my testing.

I've triple-checked my settings at UPS and on admin/modules/shipping/UPS (RDP = Daily pickup; Customer Packaging, RES delivery, zero handling fee)

Example:
UPS Ground, zone 2, 7 pounds (zero tare), residential delivery
Estimator says $8.49

UPS charts say $8.06 = $5.81 (daily rate) + $2.05 (residential delivery)

UPS charts say $10.04 = $7.99 (retail rate) + $2.05 (residential delivery)

3-day select numbers (zone 2, 7 pounds) are:
$12.16 estimated
$10.95 = $8.55 (daily) + $2.40 (residential delivery)
$12.85 = $10.45 (retail) + $2.40 (residential delivery)

Are the data files not up to date for 2010? Are they hackable / where are they?

tia

The rates are pulled from the UPS servers - Have you checked your Zen Cart settings for the Tare and Box Weights?

Hi Kim,

I don't see anything besides:
Package Tare Small to Medium - added percentage:weight
and
Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight

I have both set to 0:0

Is there a setting for box weight? The shipping weight shown in the estimator is correct, so I don't think the error is the weight.

Then you'll have to ask UPS why their server gives those rates.

Um well OK but any chance of looking at the criteria used when querying the server?

You know what the first thing they will say, after I hopefully get the right person on the phone: what are the chances that UPS won't tell me it's an error with zencart's software?

So let me ask this of everyone:

Does everybody accept that their customers will be presented with an order screen that does not accurately reflect shipping costs when shipping by UPS?

An estimate is good enough?
Customers don't complain?
Will I be paying for the extra charges the shipping module appears to ignore?

The more I look into this, the less impressed I am. It appears that residential delivery and fuel surcharges are not accounted for, and even allowing for that, the shipping amounts are not agreeing with what UPS says it is going to charge me when I set up a shipment on the UPS site.

I like zencart and it is available at a very good price, I just want to know what is going on!

Or is it accurate for you guys so I must be doing something wrong?

Could you post your Ship From and Ship To addresses and the weight that you are shipping ...

What rates do you see on your shipping estimator?

What settings are you using on UPS and what rates are you seeing?

I would be happy to provide that info, and did provide some on the opening post.

I don't expect others to solve all my problems and I'll be happy to provide any info to take advantage of your help, but first, can you or others answer the basic question here?

Does this work for you guys? Do your customers get an accurate shipping cost line item at checkout, that ends up matching actual UPS billings?

If it doesn't work in general, I don't want to waste your or my time trying to debug it in my case.

Could you perhaps provide specific Ship From, Ship To and weight being tested and the settings in UPS site that you are using to do the comparisons?

OK fine, but I have a bad feeling about this.

Not a single person is able to step up and make the simple post that this module is accurate?

That's weird. And scary.

I'll do another example and put another post together for you but I have a strong feeling it will be a huge waste of time because the shipping module cannot be expected to match actual shipping charges.

Actually, I'm going to wait an hour to start that project and check back first.

My first words here were "it claims only to estimate and not quote" and if that's the answer, would somebody just say so?
:frusty:

Perhaps there is a problem and you all honestly thought it was totally accurate and I happen to be the first person to make an issue of it. That would be weird but not totally unprecedented for me. So I will roll my sleeves up and help as much as I can to resolve the issue, but I hate chasing wild geese.

The Shipping Estimator and checkout_shipping are both obtaining Real Time quotes from UPS ...

They use the same code to make the calls ...

OK great, thanks for the info. Knowledge is good.

I still do not understand why no one will answer if it is accurate in real life. I have run out of ways to ask the question. This is part of the art of e-commerce? :wink:

I am putting together another example or four.

That is relative ...

You have to check to see if the Real Time Quotes from the UPS servers match what you are getting charged ...

There are various settings that you might need to adjust to get that correct match ...

Four examples actually

Ship from Sherwood Oregon 97140
I have a new account with UPS, completely set up and after the waiting periods for rates to kick in.
The account is set up for Smart Pickup and I am using Internet Shipping (Shipping/Create a shipment).
My understanding is that should give me daily rates (not retail rates).

I am going to set up shipments for residential delivery and commercial delivery in Chicago and rural Georgia.

I used gmaps and whitepages.com to pick these addresses at random. My previous exmples were for local delivery (Zone 2).

1. Naples Pizza 4601 South Ashland Avenue Chicago IL 60609-3252
2. James Wilson 6710 S Claremont Ave, Apt 109 Chicago, IL 60636-2436
3. Pizza Place 2366 Highway 113 # C, Taylorsville, GA 30178-1873
4. James E Smith Jr 10 Mountain Breeze Rd Taylorsville, GA 30178-1749

On the create a shipment page at UPS
https://www.ups.com/uis/create?loc=en_US
I enter the ship to address, I check Validate this address but do NOT check Residential address in any case.
Ship from defaults correctly.
My packaging
Weight: 7 lbs
Dimensions: 8 x 8 x 13
Declared value: $40
How to Ship: UPS Ground
No additional services
No reference numbers
Bill to my account
No to schedule a UPS on-call pickup
I click next
Show shipping fees subtotal details
Shipping Fees Subtotal:
10.91 USD
Transportation
8.09 USD
Fuel Surcharge
0.62 USD
Declared Value
Package 1
No Charge
Residential Surcharge
2.20 USD
cancel

I used all the same values and settings for the other three addresses:

2. James Wilson 6710 S Claremont Ave, Apt 109 Chicago, IL 60636-2436
   Shipping Fees Subtotal:
   14.85 USD
   Transportation
   11.81 USD
   Fuel Surcharge
   0.84 USD
   Declared Value
   Package 1
   No Charge
   Residential Surcharge
   2.20 USD

3. Pizza Place 2366 Highway 113 # C, Taylorsville, GA 30178-1873
   Shipping Fees Subtotal:
   11.18 USD
   Transportation
   8.85 USD
   Fuel Surcharge
   0.63 USD
   Declared Value
   Package 1
   No Charge
   Delivery Area Surcharge
   Package 1: Delivery Area Surcharge - Rural Extended
   1.70 USD

4. James E Smith Jr 10 Mountain Breeze Rd Taylorsville, GA 30178-1749
   Shipping Fees Subtotal:
   14.63 USD
   Transportation
   8.85 USD
   Fuel Surcharge
   0.83 USD
   Declared Value
   Package 1
   No Charge
   Delivery Area Surcharge
   Package 1: Delivery Area Surcharge - Rural Extended
   2.75 USD
   Residential Surcharge
   2.20 USD

OK off to my store. I login a new dummy customer for each of these 4 pretend orders.

1. Sue Smith at Naples Pizza has one item on her shopping cart, weight is 7 lbs.
   Holy cow it matches at $10.91 That is the first time I've had a match.

2. Linda logs in and places an order to James Smith's address. Same order of course.
   Estimator says $10.91 also, UPS wants $14.85. That's a diff of $3.94, too low. If the estimator missed the 0.84 fuel surchange and the 2.20 residential delivery charge the diff is $0.90, which is also the difference between UPS's Transportation of $11.81 and the estimator's total of $10.91

3. Betty logs in and places an order to Pizza Place. Same order of course.
   Estimator says $14.63, UPS wants $11.18. That's a diff of $3.45, too high. If the estimator missed the 0.63 fuel surchange and the rural surcharge of $1.70 the diff is $5.78 which is also the difference between UPS's Transportation of $8.85 and the estimator's total of $14.63

4. Tom logs in and places an order for James Smith. We have another match at $14.63.

So it looks as if sometimes the estimator has the transportation fee correct and sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it accounts for the surcharges and sometimes it doesn't.

So I am pretty frustrated here and I just typed and deleted a sarcastic paragraph referring to the zc team. I decide to look into the support community here. Holy cow, only 4 people? I had no idea, I thought this was like phpBB, that zc would have maybe half as many people working on it as phpBB. Wow, that explains a lot.

My new business is going to be based on perpetual positive customer experience from the start. So I want correct shipping cost quotes. So I have offered to help fix this problem. I can call UPS and get the logic and rates all sorted out if someone here can revise the software.

In the meantime, why can't someone just admit it is only an estimator? It is not properly programmed to match the rates produced by UPS: the logic is clearly different. This is not a user error. Identical queries of identical databases produce identical results.

I am now going to go see how you disable the shipping estimator and will provide an alternate solution for my valued customers.

If you continue to ignore this problem, you also will be ignoring an offer to fix it. I see it as a critically important problem, apparently you folks do not. So be it, the ball is in your court and I am going to get on with my life. I have a business to launch.

What happens if you use:
UPS Pickup Method: CC